For the fourth year Hospice of the Central Peninsula has sponsored a Disc Golf Tournament to raise funds for their Camp Mend-A-Heart and for the fourth year the event was happily held under wet and rainy conditions. “I was in charge of the weather and I ordered sunshine from the Big Man himself, but I guess he didn’t check in with Mother Nature who was watering all those new trees the Gift of Green volunteers planted on Friday,” laughed event coordinator for Hospice Lisa Roberts.

Camp Mend-A-Heart has become a popular cause and the wet weather didn’t deter disc golfers from entering the tournament, “It’s a great cause because we have a lot of tragic deaths in this community and those effected by these deaths are not all adults, many children also are impacted from suffering loss and sometimes they are left out and haven’t learned how to grieve and simply don’t understand why Uncle Ted is no longer here to hold them on his knee and that what Camp Mend-A-Heart his here for to help those children get through their grief and understand death a little better,” explained Roberts.

“Hospice of the Central Peninsula would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to the community whose coordinated efforts and donations contributed to a very successful 4th Annual Disc Golf Tournament. The funds generated from this event sponsor Camp Mend A Heart. A 3 day camp for children ages 6-12. They participate in an enjoyable, accepting and supportive environment in which they freely are able to express their feelings about the loss of a loved one. Thank you to all the volunteers who make this camp possible,” said Marquitta Andrus, executive director for Hospice. According to Andrus there is never a charge for the camp, or any other of the services offered by hospice. “The hospice board of directors has been diligent in their fundraising efforts to support all of our programs offered to our community,” she added. For more information about Camp Mend-A-Heart or other Hospice services contact their local office in Soldotna at 262-0453.

This year’s disc golf tournament winners included the first place team from Peninsula Memorial Chapel “The Undertakers” made up of Luke Baumer, Chris Goodrich, Grant Wisniewski, and Josh Werba. The team from Cook Inlet Environmental came in second, and finishing third was the Central Peninsula Hospital team.